Today I gave notice that I was exiting another park operations contract in California. This location has always been marginal, but we kept holding out hope of improving it. But with rising CA minimum wage, the PPACA, and onerous CA labor and liability laws, operating in CA is so hard that I have to make good money or get out.

I had to pick a termination date at the end of the summer. I was going to choose Labor Day but looking at the calendar, it gave me a smile to slip the date to September 2, a date that should be familiar to anyone who is a real Atlas Shrugged geek. It is an inside joke guaranteed not to be recognized by any of the government agency managers we work with there.

In the opening scene of the novel, a bum asking Eddie Willers for a handout, asks "Who is John Galt?" This and the way it was asked bother Eddie. As he walks through NYC he is also bothered by the gigantic calendar hanging from a public tower and announcing the date as September 2.

On that date, Hank Readen and Dagny Taggart decide to take a vacation together. On that vacation they discover an abandoned motor that should have revolutionized the use of energy in the world.

Francisco D'Anconia makes his speech on money on September 2. He proclaims money to be the tool of free trade and the result of noble effort, not the root of evil. Those who call money evil choose to replace its use with the force of the gun.

D'Anconia Copper is nationalized on 2 September, but the date on the calendar is replaced by "Brother, you asked for it!"